Diffusion Effects in the European Fertility Transition: Historical Evidence from Within a Belgian Town (1846–1910)

Jan van Bavel ()
Additional contact information
Jan van Bavel: KU Leuven

European Journal of Population, 2004, vol. 20, issue 1, No 4, 63-85

Abstract: Abstract This article investigates empirically diffusion effects on married couples' fertility behaviour during the historical European demographic transition. To this end, a blended logistic model of parity-dependent stopping behaviour is developed, including indicators for both natural and structural determinants and diffusion effects. The model is applied to the birth intervals of three 19th century generations of urban working class couples living in the Belgian town of Leuven. The results indicate that occupational status cannot explain the adoption of stopping behaviour. The evidence suggests that diffusion mechanisms were at work on a neighbourhood level: the proportion of Francophone couples living in the Leuven streets had a significant positive impact on the probability that the Flemish couples were applying stopping behaviour. Also, working class couples who were living in a town quarter that was hosting many upper class people were significantly more likely to stop.

Keywords: Belgium; demographic transition; diffusion; fertility control; logistic model (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2004
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1023/B:EUJP.0000014572.66520.0d Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:eurpop:v:20:y:2004:i:1:d:10.1023_b:eujp.0000014572.66520.0d

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/10680

DOI: 10.1023/B:EUJP.0000014572.66520.0d

Access Statistics for this article

European Journal of Population is currently edited by Helga A.G. de Valk

More articles in European Journal of Population from Springer, European Association for Population Studies
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().